PD Endorsement: Yes on Proposition 31, snuff out flavored tobacco products

In 2020, a bipartisan supermajority of California legislators voted to ban sales of flavored tobacco products in the Golden State.

Just one legislator out of 120 voted against the bill, but tobacco companies have spent millions since then to keep their deadly products on the market in California.

Almost as soon as Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 793 into law, a referendum campaign bankrolled by the tobacco industry got started. They collected enough signatures to suspend the law pending a statewide vote.

That vote will come Nov. 8. Californians can put an end to sales of flavored tobacco products by saying yes to Proposition 31.

Tobacco is an unrelenting killer, taking nearly 500,000 lives annually in the United States, including about 40,000 in California. Millions more suffer from emphysema, elevated blood pressure and other tobacco-related illnesses.

Because the nicotine in tobacco products is highly addictive, it’s extraordinarily difficult to quit smoking or vaping or chewing — even when people know they’re harming themselves. And secondhand smoke poses risks for nonusers.

Anti-smoking campaigns are a public health success story. In 1963, when the surgeon general warned that tobacco causes cancer, almost half of Americans smoked. Now, it’s about 15%, and less than 10% in California. Here in Sonoma County, a state report published in 2019 put the figure at 12.3%.

The curve is pointed in the right direction — down — but thousands of people still take up the habit every year. The younger they start, the more likely they are to get hooked. Indeed, nearly 9 out of 10 adults who smoke started as teenagers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Novices often gravitate toward sweet flavors. That’s why the Food and Drug Administration outlawed most flavored cigarettes in 2009, exempting only menthol, a flavor especially popular with — and heavily marketed to — African Americans. The FDA is finally moving to rectify that mistake.

E-cigarettes were initially marketed as a way of weaning people off the regular variety. But they have also proven to be an on-ramp for new users, with vape cartridges sold in an array of flavors like mango, cherry and chocolate with obvious appeal to the youth market.

Tobacco companies have an economic interest in ensuring that these products remain on the market. They have some libertarian-leaning allies who argue that adults should be allowed to make their own choices, even foolish ones.

If tobacco use could be limited exclusively to adults, that argument be more persuasive. However, teens have little trouble obtaining cigarettes, vape cartridges and other tobacco products, despite laws prohibiting sales of tobacco products to minors. A 2019 survey found that 5.4% of California high school students smoke at least occasionally, with 18.2% vaping and 7.6% chewing tobacco. Surveys also show that flavored products are especially popular with the young users tobacco companies need to sustain their business.

Beyond the human suffering, there are staggering economic costs associated with tobacco use. In 2018, smoking was responsible for more than $240 billion in health care spending, much of it borne by taxpayers, and $370 billion in lost productivity in the United States, according to research cited by the CDC.

More than 100 cities and counties, including Petaluma, Windsor and Sebastopol, have banned sales of flavored tobacco products. A state law is overdue. Send a message to Big Tobacco: Vote yes on Proposition 31.

You can send letters to the editor to letters@pressdemocrat.com.